Set That Keyboard on Fire
Every year in November a thrill goes through the fingers of scribblers. NaNoWriMo is on – National Novel Writing Month.
Chatter on social media goes like this: “Are you doing it?”, “I’m not sure I’ll do it”, “I think I’ll do it”, “If you do it”…
For those of you not familiar with the concept, here’s the skinny: Writers are challenged to write 50,000 words in 30 days, that’s 1666.66 a day. To give you a yardstick, in my typical document set-up, that translates to about 6 pages double-spaced, Times Roman, font size 12.
NaNoWriMo is not a competition—there are no judges, juries, or authorities bestowing medals and ribbons. There are winners: the stubborn souls that complete the assignment (honor system: nobody’s going to come check that the work was really done). There are no losers, as what matters is “participation”. Which, if you have an ounce of competitive spirit is a bit of a cop out. Why even attempt the thing if you’re not going to give it your best shot?
Why do it, you’ll ask, why November, often a gloomy month? After all, writers working on a project set objectives for themselves as a matter of course. Stephen King says he writes 2,000 words every day. Wow … Others use the summer months to get a first draft done, or a revision completed. Some say, I’ll get it to my beta readers by Christmas. Lots of good resolutions, planning commitments …
The intent of the non-profit behind NaNoWriMo is to encourage people to write, give a little push to those who’ve been thinking about putting words on paper but keep procrastinating, or unblock the blocked. And there is a definite psychological effect at play. Like Dry January (no alcohol for a month), it is motivating to know that perfect strangers are in it with you.
If you have sarcastic tendencies, you may wonder if we really need more writers. Don’t we need more readers instead? In a 2022 Gallup poll 17% of U.S. adults said they didn’t read a book in the past year, 27% said they read more than ten books which is 8% less than 6 years before (the number of “heavy” readers is in decline over time).
Or as Remy, the rat in Ratatouille (2007), says in these famous lines of dialog:
Gusteau: What do I always say? Anyone can cook!
Remy: Well, yeah, anyone *can”, that doesn’t mean that anyone *should*.
Snarky rodent!
Some famous books came out of NaNoWriMo. I’ll mention two I read and enjoyed: Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, and Hugh Howey’s Wool. A bunch of people got their work published after taking the challenge (they might have gotten there without it, there’s no way to tell). A list is on Wikipedia. That’s the page where I found out that the project started in July 1999 (21 participants) and moved to November in 2000 (140 participants). Over 400,000 signed up in 2022. Joining is free and there’s a website where you can track your progress, with little badges for milestones, tips and pep talks from famous writers. It’s fun. I think. Call me nuts.
I discovered NaNoWriMo three years ago and did it two years in a row, 2020 and 2021, those were the Covid years and being grounded with minimal distractions certainly helped. What else was there to do! Both times I clocked on November 30 at 60,000 words, the Stephen King 2K/day marker. I did not sustain that rhythm in December or ever again outside of NaNo. Can’t do it. It’s a killer.
National Novel Writing Month is a bit of a misnomer. Fifty thousand words is more in novella than full-length book territory. For the sake of comparison, The Hobbit, a slender volume for a fantasy book, is 95,000 words. Most crime novels hover between 75K and 90K.
And the work is far from done on November 30. There’s months of revisions and redrafting to look forward to. Still, the challenge can help kickstart a project, create a work routine, instill discipline. Every writer knows how important it is to get that butt in the chair!
I signed up again this year, with some trepidation, because unlike my two previous participations, I did not prepare at all. I did not spend October on research and writing a few pages outline. I’m flying blind this time. There’s a high probability I’ll hit a wall or will get stuck in a corner. All I have to work with is a handful of colorful characters and an inciting incident. Good enough to sustain a couple of chapters. What happens after that will be a surprise. Curiosity is the main reason why I decided to give it a go. See what I can come up with. It’s the way I write short stories. Maybe it works for a novel too. James Lee Burke said in an interview that he only knows the story a few pages ahead. Elmore Leonard said he just lets the characters talk and do their stuff. I plan to put that to the test. I’ll keep you posted.